“Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.” - Jack Kerouac

Day 4

Off to London! We got up around 8am and went on our 2 hours drive back to Shannon Airport for our 1pm plane to Gatwick, London.
The plane ride was only an hour long which was felt like 5 minutes compared to a 5 hours flight ha. Once we got into London around 3 we took their commuter rail to Victoria Station in the heart of London. London is a beautiful city! We dropped our luggage off at our ghetto Bed & Breakfast that was so tiny and creepy. But it’s what you get for the money, it was worth it. All of us were exhausted but we didn’t want to waste the rest of the beautiful day and night. Theresa, Hannah and myself headed out sightseeing since we were in walking distance of everything! We went to Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, St. James Park and the Princess Diana Memorial Walkway. We were only out for a few hours and once it started getting dark at around 9 we headed back to our B&B.


Day 5


The next morning we got our tickets for an all day tour of Windsor Castle, Stonehenge and the Roman Baths. We got up and out at 8am and headed on the coach for a 2 hour bus ride to Windsor Castle. Windsor Castle, in Windsor in the English county of Berkshire, is the largest inhabited castle in the world and, dating back to the time of William the Conqueror.
Queen Elizabeth II spends many weekends of the year at the castle, using it for both state and private entertaining. When we arrived at the Castle on Monday morning, the Queen was still there, but once we got into the castle she ended up leaving to go to Buckingham Palace. When we got there we got to walk around the State Apartments, extensive suites of rooms at the heart of the working palace. We also saw the Drawings Gallery, Queen Mary's dolls' house, and the fourteenth-century St. George's Chapel, which was the burial place of ten sovereigns and setting for many Royal weddings. We were not allowed to take pictures inside so I have none but the outside of the castle was marvelous. The stone work was so beautiful and I can’t believe that people still live here and how amazing it must be.
Since we were on a tour bus we only had limited time to see everything so we were rushed through and headed back to the bus to head to our next sightseeing adventure…Stonehenge! Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument located in the English county of Wiltshire. One of the most famous prehistoric sites in the world, Stonehenge is composed of earthworks surrounding a circular setting of large standing stones. Archaeologists believe that the standing stones were erected around 2200 BC and the surrounding circular earth bank and ditch, which constitute the earliest phase of the monument, have been dated to about 3100 BC. It was a beautiful site! But always seeing pictures of Stonehenge, I always thought it was a big bigger then what it truly was! Pictures are deceiving! And I never thought of what was surrounding Stonehenge, but I found out…nothing. Absolutely nothing is around Stonehenge. Only one road is located around it and you have to drive at least two miles on this one, two-way road to get to the stones.
After leaving Stonehenge behind, the tour bus took us to Bath, to see the Roman Baths. The Roman Baths complex is a site of history in the English city of Bath. The complex is a very well-preserved Roman site of public bathing. The Baths themselves are below the modern street level and has four main features, the Sacred Spring, the Roman Temple, the Roman Bath House and the Museum holding finds from Roman Bath.


Day 6


Woke up in the morning and caught the famous hop on hop off double Decker bus tour. When around to just about everything you could think of. We headed to Shakespeare Globe Theatre, River Thames, and Piccadilly Circus. After a day of all the touristy attractions, we when back to our Bed and Breakfast for the Ice Bar! That place was absolutely amazing! It was -5 degree Celcius and everything was made of ice. The chairs, tables, lights and the cups and bar itself! It was called the Absolute Ice Bar London and with your ticket in, you got a drink that they only served with Absolute vodka. Also because it was so cold, we could only stay in for a total of 40 minutes, while in there you got to wear a jacket and gloves. Once we left the bar we ended up eating at a pizza chain named Pizza Express, which had the best pizza! Anyone who goes to London and just wants a plain old cheese pizza…that is the place to go! Once we ate we headed back to London Victiora for bed. I ended up calling my mom and let them know how everything was.


Day 7


Last day in London. We slept in until 9am and headed over to the London Eye which was a 360 degree view of London for about 35 minutes. We lucked out, it was such gorgeous weather! The Eye was located right next to the River Thames. After we got off the London Eye, Theresa and I headed to Kings Cross Station….yes where Harry Potter traveled to Hogwarts. Sooo we went to Platform 9 ¾!
Let me tell you, my childhood dream was completely fulfilled! I could not believe that they really had a platform! We ended up eating at the station just because we wanted to say we ate at Kings Cross Station. At around 2:30 we met back up with Hannah and Amanda and went on the Tube to get to Abbey Road. Abbey Road took a while to get to, but once we were there, we were thrilled! We ended up writing our names on the Beatles recording studio wall, and we got a picture on the crosswalk, just like the Beatles did! After we got our wonderful pictures, we headed to the airport to catch our flight back to Ireland.